Hail to the Chief: MOCAD to show 2,300 Obama portraits

New York artist Rob Pruitt made a small painting of President Barack Obama on the morning after he was inaugurated into office in 2009. The next day he made another. The day after that he made a third. He hasn't stopped yet.

Even as the project continues, Pruitt will exhibit nearly 2,300 of "The Obama Paintings" for the first time at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit beginning May 15.

Each portrait, 2 foot by 2 foot square, draws its imagery from the news of the day, profound or banal. By the time Obama concludes his second term there will 2,922 paintings in the series. Pruitt's "The Lincoln Monument," an installation made from 200,000 pennies filling three stacked copper painted truck tires, will also be part of the show.

The exhibit, curated by MOCAD executive director Elysia Borowy-Reeder, is something of a coup for the museum, bringing to Detroit an artist known for his pop-inspired take on American culture. Critical opinion remains mixed, and Roberta Smith wrote in the New York Times last year that Pruitt is often viewed as "a clever lightweight." At the same time, however, Smith wrote, "He is increasingly serious about providing engrossing, weirdly thought-provoking visual experiences."

The Obama portraits promise a kind of running narrative of Obama's presidency, a monument in real time. The pictures are done swiftly. Pruitt covers the canvas in a spectrum of red to blue, and then paints his chosen image, drawn from photographs, in white expressionist brush strokes.

"Detroit is definitely a great place to unveil this work for the first time," Pruitt said in a statement. "As the city hit hardest by the recent financial crisis, which coincided with the beginning of Obama's presidency, I believe its problems with employment and opportunity reflect those of the entire country, but greatly magnified."